Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Things to Make: Re-Purposed T-Shirt Yarn!


For today's tutorial we're doing a slightly different take on the usual T-Shirt makeover!  We're gonna turn that shirt into yarn!!!  Yup.

I've seen several different tutorials on this, and found this one to be the most helpful!

Here's my quick how-to:

Materials Needed:
An old -shirt
Sharp scissors

First, lay your shirt out on a flat surface.






Next, cut the bottom hem (if there is one) and the top of the shirt off just beneath the armpits.  It become a big tube.  

Turn the shirt so that on of the folded edges is on top, with the cut edges on each side. 





 Fold the bottom folded edge up...leaving about a 1 inch 'hem' at the top.






Do that again.






Next, cutting from the bottom, cut 1 inch strips upward to the 'hem'...make sure you don't cut through it!!  






When you're done with that unfold the shirt...it should look something like this:






Next, comes the trickiest part.  Slip your arm through the top 'hem' of the shirt.  






Carefully cut across the shirt from the bottom slit to the SECOND slit on the top, at a diagonal.  (Sorry...this part was really hard to take a picture of!)






Continue across the length of the shirt.  At the end, cut across to the open end of the shirt...Repeat on the first side.  (If you don't cut the end you end up with a big circle!)






Now, you have a big long strip of t-shirt.  Obviously, if you use a shirt without side-seams you're going to end up with a much smoother looking strip...but I actually kinda like the raw seams, etc.






After you've made your strip, stretch the shirt apart...it will kinda roll and pull into a narrower string.  Voilá!






T-Shirt Yarn!!!






Now go make something fun and cool, like this funky loopy scarf.  Here's how:

Take a gigantic crochet hook (like a Speed Hook...this thing is seriously, like, as big around as my thumb...maybe bigger) and crochet a long chain with your new yarn.  






Slip stitch into the first ch on hook.  Finish off.  (You can cut off the ends or leave them hanging down for a funky look.)  

Wear your new creation by twisting it around your neck.  




Add a cute T-Shirt Flower clip or pin to add a little extra flair!  (I made this flower following the basic plan of these flowers, and added a button to the center and some felt leaves as an accent...then I hot-glued it to a hair clip.  Simple!)




Hope you all have fun with this fun new way to use an old shirt!!





Happy Creating!

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